Hackers have released an untethered jailbreak for the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 4.3.1, for all devices but the iPad 2. And jailbreaking has caught the attention of Toyota, which has created a custom iPhone theme to promote its Scion brand.

The iOS Dev-Team on Monday released its latest hack to jailbreak iOS devices, with "PwnageTool 4.3" and "redsn0w 0.9.6rc9" both available for download. The "untethered" jailbreak, which does not require a device to be connected to a computer via USB every time it restarts, works on the iPhone 3GS, GSM iPhone 4, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, the first-generation iPad, and the second-generation Apple TV.

"The reason the untether won't work as-is on the iPad 2 is that it requires a bootrom or iBoot-level exploit to install, and the iPad 2 is not susceptible to either the limera1n or SHAtter bootroom exploits," the team explained on its official website.

Jailbreaking is a process that allows users to run code and make changes to the iOS mobile operating system that are unauthorized by Apple. One popular use is custom themes and skins that change the look and feel of an iPhone or iPad.

One such skin was released last week for the first time by a major corporation: Toyota released a theme for its Scion 2011 vehicle in Cydia, an alternative application store available on jailbroken devices. Users can find the content by searching for "Scion 2011 Theme" in the Cydia store.

According to ModMyi, the theme was actually developed by Scion, specifically for jailbroken devices, as a promotional tool to push its vehicles. In addition, the company is also running an advertising campaign within Cydia that points to the theme so users can download it.

The report claimed that between 8 and 9 percent of iOS-based devices are jailbroken, and 1.5 million unique users log into Cydia daily, for a total of 4 million to 5 million weekly. "Saurik," who manages Cydia, has estimated that there are 10 million to 15 million jailbroken iOS devices in the wild.

The appearance of an official advertisement from a major corporation will likely add some credibility to the jailbreaking community and Cydia in the mainstream. Jailbreakers also received a boost from the U.S. government last July, when the process was declared legal.

While jailbreaking can be used for entirely legal purposes such as themes and unauthorized applications, it can also be used for illegal purposes, such as stealing software from Apple's App Store. That reason, along with security concerns and other issues, has caused Apple to fight the practice.

However, Apple also removed a jailbreak detection feature from iOS 4.2 in December. The application programming interface, which first appeared in iOS 4.0 last June, had allowed third-party mobile device management applications to check for unauthorized modifications to system files.

The iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak is announced days after the software comes out, but the iPod Touch 2g MC Model is still not jailbreakable. Redsn0w beta 4 supported it, but the dev-team subsequently blocked it in later releases, and the functionality has not been added back since then.

Sucks for me.

Sent from my iPod Touch 2,1 MC Model

The best way to waste your life, ... is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don't participate.

The report claimed that between 8 and 9 percent of iOS-based devices are jailbroken, and 1.5 million unique users log into Cydia daily, fora total of 4 million to 5 million weekly. "Saurik," who manages Cydia, has estimated that there are 10 million to 15 million jailbroken iOS devices in the wild.

That's the first time I've seen AI mention the number of jailbroken devices. That's a fairly healthy and surprising percentage of iPhone/iPad owners who aren't entirely happy with the choices Apple officially offers. Very similar to the percentage of Android devices running "unofficial" versions of their devices firmware, which has been assumed to be indicative of a poorly designed Android ecosystem, or geeky owners dissimilar to Apple's. With jailbreaking not the easiest thing to do for those lacking technical skills, the number of owners wishing for a bit more than Apple offers but afraid to try it could be much higher, don't you think?.

Did Apple make my iPod Touch 2,1 MC Model unjailbreakable? Or is the dev-team just lazy?

Just checked other JB teams. None can JB my iPod Touch

lol , it fits with the mentality of all the jailbreakers I know, they all want to have everything for nothing. Every single one I know jailbreak to pirate software. It has nothing to do with some kind of insatisfaction over the Apple ecosystem other than wanting to have apps for free.

imo at 1$ to 10$ an app, they are super cheap. Its not like you have to pay 50$+ per app like in the PC world.

After reading the first two paragraphs of this article several times, and thinking of the various ways that I could re-write it so that anyone reading it would have a chance of understanding what it is trying to say, it occurred to me that the problem is possibly that English is not Sam Oliver's native language. Perhaps. If not, then I am unable to comprehend how he could have received a passing grade in high school writing classes, much less manage to pass any college-level course in English-language composition. It isn't just bad. It is simply horrific. I know that this is just a web site and not the Wall Street Journal, but come on people, there has to be a standard to be upheld for quality of writing, even on web sites such as this.

That's the first time I've seen AI mention the number of jailbroken devices. That's a fairly healthy and surprising percentage of iPhone/iPad owners who aren't entirely happy with the choices Apple officially offers ....... don't you think?.

From my experiance, the main reason for Jailbreaking is to run MiFi, this in my opinion is NOT an Apple decision, I'm sure it would have been AT&T who enforced "no tethering".

After reading the first two paragraphs of this article several times, and thinking of the various ways that I could re-write it so that anyone reading it would have a chance of understanding what it is trying to say, it occurred to me that the problem is possibly that English is not Sam Oliver's native language. Perhaps. If not, then I am unable to comprehend how he could have received a passing grade in high school writing classes, much less manage to pass any college-level course in English-language composition. It isn't just bad. It is simply horrific. I know that this is just a web site and not the Wall Street Journal, but come on people, there has to be a standard to be upheld for quality of writing, even on web sites such as this.

Watch out for those run-on sentences, not good for your health, likely to give you an ulcer, probably this one is driving you absolutely crazy right now, maybe even come hunt me down & smack a big red F on my forhead, to which I would say "I like it ALOT!"

From my experiance, the main reason for Jailbreaking is to run MiFi, this in my opinion is NOT an Apple decision, I'm sure it would have been AT&T who enforced "no tethering".

Yeah, but only in the USA do you have to pay more money to tether, and even that is changing as we speak.

The only jailbreakers I've ever met don't *say* they did it to steal apps, but basically that's why they do it. Every one of them has hundreds and hundreds of apps, none paid for.

I think a lot of folks look at the iPhone as being able to do all these cool things and they feel the functionality of the apps is a part of that. That way they feel justified in stealing apps because they are just "making their iPhone work like in the ad," (or like the next guy's iPhone). They feel all that functionality provided by the apps is simply theirs by right of the fact that they own an iPhone.

Personally, I've only come up against something that would cause me to jailbreak a few times and each time Apple simply added the feature in just *before* I was going to jailbreak. For instance if I wasn't "allowed" to tether, or had to pay more money for the privilege, I would feel justified in jailbreaking because that would be an immoral move on the part of the carriers, but with the personal hotspot being supported (everywhere but the USA that is), there is no need anymore.

Remember though, after June 30th, a lot of the 'subscription apps' could disappear if they can't adjust to Apple's new policy and people would probably have to start sideloading them into iOS devices, which means you'd need jailbreaking more than ever.

Yeah, but only in the USA do you have to pay more money to tether, and even that is changing as we speak.

Yep I have a 500mg / month package with Telus in Canada and personal hotspot works. And its super easy to used with the ipad. imo they should not charge you more for it since you are cap by your donwload limit anyway.

The report claimed that between 8 and 9 percent of iOS-based devices are jailbroken, and 1.5 million unique users log into Cydia daily, fora total of 4 million to 5 million weekly. "Saurik," who manages Cydia, has estimated that there are 10 million to 15 million jailbroken iOS devices in the wild.

It would be interesting to see how they come up with that number. Obviously, they have a vested interest in making it seem as high as possible.

I'd be surprised if it's even 1/4 of the number they cite. I know a lot of iOS users and don't know a single one who has jail broken their device.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

Remember though, after June 30th, a lot of the 'subscription apps' could disappear if they can't adjust to Apple's new policy and people would probably have to start sideloading them into iOS devices, which means you'd need jailbreaking more than ever.

I don't think so. The choice between 15 million users who don't like to pay for their apps vs 150+ million users who don't mind paying is clear.

can you speak for the rest of the 15 million users? There were many articles about developers frustration with high rate of pirated apps and the only people who can pirate apps are those who jailbreak. I am not saying all jailbreakers pirate apps but the majority of them do.

Thats one of the nicer skins Ive seen. Im glad to see that Toyota is thinking outside the box. I have to assume that Scion is marketed to a younger generation since I dont see skins being applied often to other user groups.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jragosta

It would be interesting to see how they come up with that number. Obviously, they have a vested interest in making it seem as high as possible.

I'd be surprised if it's even 1/4 of the number they cite. I know a lot of iOS users and don't know a single one who has jail broken their device.

I dont see any reason to believe its not accurate. There are plenty of ways they can count. Like updates to Cydia when a new version is released, unique access IDs, or even the storage of SHSH blobs to Cydia when a new iOS version appears.

Anecdotally speaking, pretty much everyone I know has jailbroken their iDevices. I dont know of any them that have downloaded pirated App Store apps. Personally, Ive purchased the $20 MyWI app and $5 in-app purchase for automatic BT tethering, along with a couple other cheaper apps. Cydia isnt as nice as App Store, but its nearly as convenient.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Xcode by itself won't do it. You will need to be a paid iOS developer or at least your device registered with an iOS developer with the provisioning profile. I also believe this doesn't even work with Xcode 4.

I don't think so. The choice between 15 million users who don't like to pay for their apps vs 150+ million users who don't mind paying is clear.

There is a lot more to JBing besides the option of stealing apps. Despite Jailbreaking being the first step toward stealing apps, its another level of complexity and difficulty that Id think most dont wan to deal with. Apps from Cydia can be more costly than App Store, but they also have less customers to sell to. I gladly paid $8 for Lock Info so I can have a usable lock screen. Ive paid about $50 to developers through Cydia using my PayPal account and have no stolen apps. I dont even know the process to get a stolen app on my iPhone.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

...it occurred to me that the problem is possibly that English is not Sam Oliver's native language.

Haven't you noticed the way several AI writers often drop in English idioms that don't quite work?

"While the executive's comments should certainly be taken with a grain of salt..."
"Apple coyly refused to address some technical specifications..."
"Jobs' words rang true this spring when Motorola revealed a $799 price tag..."

Not exactly wrong, but in every case Just a little off. This happens all the time in the writing on AI. It makes me think these writers are either not native American speakers, or are, at the very least, overeager idiom-droppers.

(I image the authors are given a sheet of the top 120 American idioms with rough definitions and are told to add at least one per article. Possibly not true, but that's the sense I get...)

I've known three camps of jailbreakers. One was about themes and customization in general, second was about carrier hopping, the other all about free software.

While the percentage is small compared to non jb's all eventually showed me how they could just get anything for free.

I never have, though drilling through settings has nearly coaxed me over and while I have paid for all my apps I'll be honest and say that if I did jbreak I would pirate to test which app in a category is best. Say like office apps or picasa clients cause it gets damn expensive having to buy them all to see which one works well.

I would buy the one I chose because I use it for business, if I am going to make money from using apps then so should the people who make them. If they were all free with in app purchasing to remove ads/watermarks/limits then I'd never bother to pirate at all cause wouldn't need to.

Ultimately as with adding features, they need to remove the reasons to pirate, not that will stop someone who wants it free regardless. For me even on the desktop I only use what I purchase, years back I'd pirate everything but screw it, I know what it takes to code and if I am too busy or lazy to make it myself.. well I'll pay someone else to do it for me.

There is a lot more to JBing besides the option of stealing apps. Despite Jailbreaking being the first step toward stealing apps, it’s another level of complexity and difficulty that I’d think most don’t wan to deal with. Apps from Cydia can be more costly than App Store, but they also have less customers to sell to. I gladly paid $8 for Lock Info so I can have a usable lock screen. I’ve paid about $50 to developers through Cydia using my PayPal account and have no stolen apps. I don’t even know the process to get a stolen app on my iPhone.

I am sure there are others like you who pay. But almost every jailbreaker I've meet brag about how they can get free apps and how non-jailbreakers are suckers for actually paying for their apps. I've experienced this more when traveling outside of the US.

Xcode by itself won't do it. You will need to be a paid iOS developer or at least your device registered with an iOS developer with the provisioning profile. I also believe this doesn't even work with Xcode 4.

Then how was I able to get iMovie on my 1st gen iPad? Putting a hacked .ipa file on a device would work exactly the same way. Piracy doesn't mean jailbreaking.

I am sure there are others like you who pay. But almost every jailbreaker I've meet brag about how they can get free apps and how non-jailbreakers are suckers for actually paying for their apps. I've experienced this more when Ii travel outside of the US.

I’m sure there are plenty that Jailbreak just to steal apps, but some that might just use that as a selling point without actually doing it. Talking about paying 2x as much on average for apps from Cydia (even though you can’t can’t get on the App Store) isn’t going to sound impressive.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Wow, that is one fugly home screen ... should become a poster child for how to slow down navigation by about 200%. Nothing like a monochromatic color scheme to render a lot info bland, tasteless, and confusing.

That said, the ability to make a more customizable, theme-able home screen would be a great addition for us non-jailbroken tinkers. ... even if a lot of the results will be like this sorry example.

I suspect pirating apps is NOT actually the primary reason people Jailbreak there phone, especially since installing something like Installous to install pirated apps is an extra and difficult step beyond jailbreaking in the first place.

I suspect the top 3 reasons for jailbreaking are #1 to unlock for international use #2 to enable tethering without paying extra #3 installing software NOT available in the all store (themes, utilities that use private APIs). Well pirate apps might be in the top three but I still would guess it's the #1... Just guessing though.

Saurik would have the real number of daily users since Cydia calls home for updates when launched and to save SHSH blobs. With those two things figuring out total users and daily users would be trivial. I doubt however there is any reliable way to determine how many people install tethering software (mifi, pdanet, etc...) vs a pirate repo (sinful/Installous) vs unlock (ultrasnow).